The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for authenticating the dispatch and the contents of dispatched information in general.
Post, courier, forwarding and other mail services, which enable people to exchange documents and data, have been widely used both in the past and at the present time. With the evolution of modern technology, the use of electronic dispatch devices and systems, such as modems, facsimile machines, electronic mail (E-Mail) and EDI systems, computers, communication networks, and so forth, to exchange data and documents is rapidly evolving.
A substantial quantity of the information exchanged, such as contracts, purchase orders, invoices, monetary orders, notices, and even warning and notification messages, are of utmost importance. Sometimes, when a dispute arises between the sending and receiving party of the exchanged information, the receiving party may raise the claim that he never received the information, that the received information was different from what the sender claims to have sent, or the receiving party may even attempt to forge the received information.
The need, therefore, arises for the sender to prove that specific information has been sent at a specific time to that specific receiving party.
Various solutions to various related problems have been proposed in the literature. For example, the transmission operation itself may be authenticated, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,361 (Schwalm et al.), which describes a communication system providing a verification system to identify both the sender and recipient of electronic information as well as an automatic time stamp for delivery of electronic information. This patent, however, does not verify the dispatched information.
Document authentication methods, for example by notarization, have long been in use. A method for notarization of electronic data is provided by EP-A-516 898 (PITNEY BOWES INC.) or its patent family member U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,080 (Durst et al.) which authenticates that source data has not been altered subsequent to a specific date and time. The method disclosed includes mathematically generating a second unit of data from the first unit of data, as by CRC generation, parity check or checksum. The second unit of data is then encrypted together with a time/date indication, and optionally with other information to form an authentication string. Validation that the first unit of data has not been changed is provided by comparing the original data""s authentication string with the authentication string generated from the data and time in question. A method is even suggested for having the recipient verify the authenticity of the sender, the time of transmission and the data.
Other patents which discuss document authentication are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,136,646 and 5,136,647 both to Haber et al. According to these patents, a unique digital representation of the document (which is obtained by means of a one-way hash function) is transmitted to an outside agency, where the current time is added to form a receipt. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,647, the receipt is certified using a crypto-graphic digital signature procedure, and is optionally linked to other contemporary such receipts thereby fixing the document""s position in the continuum of time. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,646, the receipt is certified by concatenating and hashing the receipt with the current record catenate certificate which itself is a number obtained by sequential hashing of each prior receipt with the extent catenate certificate.
Various cryptographic schemes are known in the prior art for encrypting and for authenticating digital data and/or its author. For example Symmetric algorithms such as DES [1.01] and IDEA [1.02], one-way hash functions [1.03] such as MD5 [1.04], Public-Key (asymmetric) algorithms [1.05] such as RSA [1.06], and verifiable digital signatures generation algorithms [1.12] such as DSA [1.07] or RSA, as well as combinations thereof such as PGP [1.08] and MACs [1.13], are currently widely used for security and for authentication purposes [1.09]. An excellent publication relating to encryption, authentication, public-key cryptography and to cryptography and data security in general, as well as applications thereof and additional references to multiple sources can be found in [1]. Further prior art, in particular referring to integrity of stored data, can be found in D. W. Davies and W. L. Price xe2x80x9cSecurity for computer networksxe2x80x9d, 1989, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester (UK).
Proof of delivery of non-electronic documents is provided, for example, by Registered Mail and courier services. It is commonly used to authenticate the delivery of materials at a certain time to a certain party, and serves as admissible proof of delivery in a court of law. However, no proof is provided as to the information contents of the specific dispatch.
E-mail and other electronic messages forwarding services are commonly used today. The sender sends a message to the dispatching service which, in turn, forwards the message to the destination and provides the sender with a delivery report which typically includes the date and time of the dispatch, the recipient""s address, the transmission completion status, and sometimes even the transmitted data, the number of pages delivered, the recipient""s identification information, and so on. The provided delivery report mainly serves for accounting purposes and for notifying the sender of the dispatch and/or its contents. Moreover, frequently no record of the specific dispatched data is maintained with the service after the delivery is completed or provided to the sender.
The literature does not provide a comprehensive solution that directly addresses the problem in question: what information has been sent to whom and when. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system to provide the sender with a convenient means for authenticating both the dispatch and the contents of documents, electronic information and other information during the normal flow of daily activities.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve the capacity of conventional systems and methods for dispatching documents and transmitting information to provide the sender with evidence he can use to prove both the dispatch and its contents.
The present invention discloses an apparatus according to claim 1 for authenticating that certain information has been sent by a sender via a dispatcher to a recipient, the apparatus comprising:
means for providing a set A comprising a plurality of information elements a1, . . . ,an, said information element a1 comprising the contents of said dispatched information, and said one or more information elements a2, . . . ,an containing dispatch-related information and comprise at least the following elements:
a2xe2x80x94a time indication associated with said dispatch; and
a3xe2x80x94information describing the destination of said dispatch,
and wherein at least one of said information elements is provided in a manner that is resistant or indicative of tamper attempts by said sender;
means for associating said dispatch-related information with said element a1 by generating authentication-information, in particular comprising a representation of at least said elements a1, a2 and a3, said representation comprising a set of one or more elements, each comprising a representation of one or more elements of said set A; and
means for securing at least part of said authentication-information against undetected tamper attempts of at least said sender.
Thus, the present invention provides a sender with the capability to prove both the dispatch and the contents of the dispatched materials. The dispatched materials can be paper documents, electronic information or other information which can be dispatched electronically by transmission or non-electronically, such as by courier or registered mail service, to an address of a recipient.
According to the present invention, dispatch related information is associated with the contents of the dispatch, in a relatively secure, or reliable manner. This associated information can be provided for example to the sender, and may serve as evidence of both the dispatch and its contents, for example, in a court of law, and therefore it is collectively referred to herein as the xe2x80x9cauthentication-informationxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cevidencexe2x80x9d.
Additionally, the present invention discloses a method according to claim 27, wherein in essence, a set A comprising a plurality of information elements a1, . . . ,an is provided, said information element a1 comprising the contents of the dispatched information, and said one or more information elements a2, . . . ,an containing dispatch-related information and comprise at least the following elements:
a2xe2x80x94a time indication associated with said dispatch; and
a3xe2x80x94information describing the destination of said dispatch,
and wherein at least one of said information elements is provided in a manner that is resistant or indicative of tamper attempts by said sender.
Said dispatch-related information is associated with said element a1 by generating authentication-information, in particular comprising a representation of at least said elements a1, a2 and a3, said representation comprising a set of one or more elements, each comprising a representation of one or more elements of said set A, and at least part of said authentication-information is secured against undetected tamper attempts of at least said sender.
It is appreciated that in accordance with the present invention, the representation can comprise any number of any combination in any form of: the elements themselves, identical or equivalent elements such as copies thereof or information describing or identifying these elements, information expressive as a mathematical function of one or more of these elements and so forth. Each combination may be maintained jointly or separately as desired. The representation has a recursive characteristic, i.e., it can comprise a representation of one or more of the above.
The present invention encompasses all types of information being dispatched, such as that found on paper documents or within electronic documents and other electronic data, and all types of dispatch methods, such as transmission via facsimile machines, modems, computer networks, electronic mail systems and so forth, or manually such as via registered mail or courier services.
The term xe2x80x9cthe contents of the dispatchxe2x80x9d herein refers to any information element having information content the substance of which is equivalent to that of the information being dispatched. This includes for example the information source, either in paper document or electronic form, the actual dispatched information, any copies thereof, any descriptive information or portion of the information contents identifying the dispatched information, and so forth regardless of the representation or form.
The present invention also encompasses all types of methods and apparatuses which provide and/or associate the dispatch information with the contents in a relatively secure or reliable manner. The terms xe2x80x9crelatively securexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9creliablexe2x80x9d herein mean xe2x80x9creasonably tamper-proofxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctamper-detectablexe2x80x9d, i.e., that it is assured that the authentic information elements are provided and associated in a reliable manner, for example by a non-interested third party or by a device or by a combination of both, and furthermore, that the associated authentication-information is secured against fraudulent actions such as disassociation, modification, replacement etc., attempted by an interested party such as the sending or receiving party, at least to the extent that such actions are detectable.
The dispatch information can be any information describing at least the time and destination of the dispatch and preferably the dispatch completion status. Other information relating to the dispatch, such as the identity of the sender and/or the recipient, handshake information, the actual elapsed dispatch time, the number of pages dispatched and so forth, the identification of the authenticator, for example its name, logo, stamp, etc., can also be provided.
Finally, the authentication-information can be secured or stored in a secure location or device, in its entirety or in part, together or separately, as desired.